


I am Here

by Katalyna_Rose



Series: Kahlia Mahariel [27]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Dissociation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 09:18:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16060115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyna_Rose/pseuds/Katalyna_Rose
Summary: Relapses happen during recovery, but it's always important to be gentle with a loved one when they're hurting. Zevran panicked and did it wrong, but he will do everything he can to make up for it.





	I am Here

Kahlia was hurting again. It was bad this time, a relapse of sorts, and she was afraid. Zevran knew that she was afraid not by what she said, but how she’d reacted when he’d found her. Scrubbing her hands again, raw up to the elbow, he didn’t know how long she’d been standing over the bowl except that there was more blood than water by the time he found her. He’d panicked, which was the worst reaction he could have possibly had and he’d likely not forgive himself for it. He’d snatched the rag she’d been scrubbing with out of her hands, raised his voice, but he couldn’t even remember what he’d said. Had he accused her? Had he been harsh with her? He had no idea because in the moments following his interruption she’d frozen in place, then met his eyes, then fled, and regret set in before the action solidified into memory. The closet was the only place for her to go, and he stood on the other side of the door and leaned his forehead against it, berating himself silently.

“Kahlia? Mi amor, lo siento,” he murmured to her. “Lo siento, I wasn’t thinking. I am afraid for you, my love. Please, won’t you open the door? Let me take care of you. Let me bandage your wounds.” There was only silence, but the door was trembling against his touch and he knew that she leaned against it and shook with her pain and panic. His heart hurt as though he’d been stabbed in the chest, a feeling he knew a little too well, and he had to try again. “Kahlia, I am so sorry. I love you so much and I only want to make sure you will be alright. Please, mi amor. Will you open the door so I can apologize properly? I have made a mess of things, no? I would like to try to make them right, if you will let me.”

He waited. And waited. He wasn’t sure she’d heard him, didn’t know if she was frozen by her fears. He didn’t know if she was herself enough to understand what he said, or if she was capable of opening the door with her hands so injured. But he waited for her. He would wait a lifetime for the woman on the other side of the door, after all.

And he was rewarded for it, as he had been when the world thought she’d died to save it. She opened the door, her eyes on anything but the blood she left on the handle or him. Relief was bittersweet because at least she let him in but she was so hurt. He didn’t touch her, guided her gently to sit while he gathered what he needed. Then he washed her arms gently in clean water, applied the salve they kept for such occasions, which hadn’t been used in quite some time. He wrapped the linen bandages from wrist to elbow, then used thinner ones to wrap her hands as best as he could. When that was done he brewed a tea for her pain, and all of it was done in silence.

He brought the tea to her, sweetened with honey because he knew she liked it, and he knelt at her feet. “I love you, my Kahlia,” he reminded her. “I am here with you, through this and whatever else comes. I will never leave you unless you tell me to go and you mean it. This I swear to you, now and always.”

Her eyes found his and she kept that connection, making him smile. She didn’t speak yet, but she sipped at her tea and she met his gaze. It was enough. She would heal.


End file.
